Proof Research is a relatively new company in Montana that is producing high-end lightweight hunting and tactical rifles. What separates them from other custom rifle makers is that they manufacture in house the actions, stocks and carbon fiber-wrapped barrels they use for the rifles they build. The company was kind enough to provide us with test footage taken by one of the highspeed cameras they use to analyze the rifles and components they make. Enjoy.

Founder and Dictator-In-Chief of TFB. A passionate gun owner, a shooting enthusiast and totally tacti-uncool. Favorite first date location: any gun range. Steve can be contacted here.

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Noodles

Steve, you could credit that to me or JNZ is also fine. Either way.

Thanks for posting and I’ll try and get footage anytime I go to Proof for work. Most of the stuff I can’t talk about, not allowed, but also, minds would be blown!

bbmg

The first segment is particularly interesting, you can clearly see the turbulent vortices of propellant gas retained within the suppressor just as designed. Great stuff!

Noodles

Yea, my favorite part. I pop round off on that can all time, it funny to think how every shot there is a tiny inferno in there just boiling along but not leaving the muzzle.

Mike Knox

Looking at those wrapped barrels, that’s a lot of shaft reverberations before the bullet clears the muzzle and a lot more muzzle whip after that. Rheinmetall and other German barrel smith companies had better results. Maybe proof could use some pointers and notes from them.

It’s kind of weird saying their company name. Reminds me of Eminem’s dead best friend..

Noodles

Heh, you have no idea how stiff those barrels are. There was exceptionally little whip compared to the steel barrels I didn’t capture for this testing.

Also, these captures are mostly too slow to see real whip. For that you want to capture at 6000fps then speed up to 120fps playback, none of these are set up like that, exceptions the second shotgun shot where you can see Greg take the recoil a bit in his arm and back.

Mike Knox

Two words: Relative Harmonics. Felt tension on the external surface and and that in contact with the actual barrel doesn’t show on each other. It goes a lot farther than that when it’s in high speed and when you’re not touching it. More often than not the carbon fibre binding agent isn’t as adherent on the metal barrel as it does with the fibre weave. It’s one reason ‘bull barrels’ aren’t used widely in the civilian circuit. It isn’t even in use in Military and Law Enforcement.

Just looking at it through high speed video doesn’t show everything. Especially when it doesn’t show Impulse Shock and Imparted Torsion involved in internal ballistics. It needs more than just high speed video to do it right. Even established companies do research involving up to Twenty thousand (20,000) Frames per second under different magnifications on their articles.

Just look at it this way, Carbon Fibre wrapped barrels are just adhered composites on thick Bore Linings in an effort just to save weight and maintain dimensions.

If there really were less vibrations than metal barrels, then why not show a comparative shot with it against the Carbon Fibre wrapped barrel?..

Noodles

This footage is from a half million frame per second camera (iirc). I’m not sure what you intend by claiming an established company would test at 20k… This isn’t Proof trying to convince you to buy a barrel, this is me posting some fun highspeed stuff for The Firearm Blog.

There are no comparative tests shown here because that isn’t what we were testing this day. Please feel free to research the topic more and contact Proof with any specific questions about the products.

mosinman

im wondering if the carbon fiber also protects the gun barrel from heat/moisture

Noodles

Mosin, water is not a specific requirement as the steel is usually stainless. Heat is a consideration for the carbon, but I can’t talk to much about that without Proof’s consent. I can say that the carbon barrels are lighter, and cool quickly.

JMD

I wish the folks who make great videos like this would film in front of a high-contrast grid background, to make measurements and comparison of movement simpler and more reliable.

Lolinski

And a comparison with standard steel barrels so that we can see the difference. Not hating but want to see both sides.

JMD

Agreed. Just for comparative analysis purposes, that would be great.

noob

also I’d like to find out what the engineering effort difference is between turning a standard barrel and turning a barrel followed by fiber wrapping.

I wonder if they have a process that makes the wrapping phase quicker than hand lay up, and if they use special thin profile barrel blanks so that they don’t have to remove a lot of metal before the wrapping phase starts.

in the past if you wanted a bull barrel, you’d leave nearly the whole diameter on the profile of the blank and install it on the gun. now you’d start with a skinny profile barrel blank and wrap it to desired stiffness.

denny

Hi Noodles

That material on outside (composit), does it generally damp vibrations, part of reducing weight? If it does that would be great. There is not mention about that, so I like to ask. I guess for this same reason others ask for comparative test to see; it would only help credibility.

Noodles

I can’t really get too much into the carbon barrels, other I can tell you they cool and carry like lightweight barrels, and shoot like bull barrels. They cost more than both

You’d have to ask Proof Research about those. As to vibration I’m not qualified to answer. But, as to credibility, this is not a video on the barrels (at all), I may be invited up to make that video some time, if so I’d love to post it here.

That’s amazing stuff thanks a ton JNZ for putting that together your the man!!!

nikonmikon

I absolutely love the AR-firing at the end displaying how the gasses are shot out the side of the carrier through 2 exhaust ports pretty much quelling any dullards unfounded opinions about how the AR “shits where it eats”.